Schunk has launched the LWA 4P Powerball Lightweight Arm that features app-based or manual programming. The lightweight arm can optionally be equipped with an electric collision control, says the company

Schunk is about to launch a new robotic arm for autonomous assistance robots which the company is apparently finding difficult to explain.

“How could one describe a multi-functional handling solution that operates autonomously in a human environment?” asks Schunk in a statement revealing the new product.

Schunk, which claims to be “the competence leader for clamping technology and gripping systems”, presented the anthropomorphic gripper arm and said it is designed for intuitive virtual programming and widely differing successive gripping operations; it can also optionally be equipped to react to collisions.

Picture: At Siemens’ Electronics Manufacturing Plant in Erlangen, Germany, the company has devised new concepts for highly flexible manufacturing systems using lightweight robots and 3D printers.

Simulation, 3D printing, lightweight robots – these are some of the innovative technologies driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution – or Industry 4.0. And they are already a reality at Siemens’ Electronics Manufacturing Plant in Erlangen, Germany. A key reason for the success of this plant is that people and machines work hand in hand.

Employees at Siemens’ Electronics Manufacturing Plant in Erlangen have the freedom to try out innovative ideas and turn them into successful projects.

Schorsch assembles small converters. Hannes does the big ones; he inserts a fan and a heat sink in the housing and fastens them with four screws – several hundred times a day. When Hannes takes a break, Schorsch keeps on working unwaveringly.